Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

Quite proudly I fall into the former category. In professional circumstances I really try to behave but it’s rather unnatural, don’t you think? As Cat Stevens’ song goes “I can’t keep it in, I’ve gotta let it out”.

At playgroups I can really let my guard down. Firstly, because it’s always noisy with one baby or another screeching. Secondly, the stench MUST be coming from THAT toddler’s nappy. Ah, the joy of lots of defenceless little scapegoats running around…

Although the downside of being partially deaf is obvious, surprisingly it has its upsides as well. The world is quieter and I’m oblivious to the continuous hum of traffic normal hearing people, who live in the city, complain about. If I didn’t fulfil a request someone made, I can simply say I didn’t hear them (honest!) although my husband is starting to call it “selective deafness”.

A few years ago a friend and I were working together when after a while she burst out laughing.

“You do know I can hear you farting, right?”

No, I didn’t. Damn it, I tried so hard to do it softly. Apparently, deaf people can’t hear themselves farting either!

Now why on earth would I talk about something as crude as farting on a food blog? (Obviously we have to start by blaming my parents who in this case didn’t send me to a finishing school.)

Well, Jerusalem artichokes (“sunchokes” in the USA), also known as “fartichokes”, contain inulin which is a non-digestible carbohydrate for humans that thus leads to flatulence. People who don’t regularly eat their fruit and vegetables or have digestive problems such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome should be careful of Jerusalem artichokes.

It’s never affected me though! What has your experience been with Jerusalem artichokes?

Adjusting Jerusalem Artichoke Soup for Special Diets

At just 264 calories per serving, jerusalem artichoke soup makes a healthy meal brimming with iron, potassium and thiamin. This versatile soup can also be tweaked to suit various types of diets.

Weight Watchers or other Low-Fat Diets such as Slimming World: [Option 1] Leave out the butter and use low fat cooking spray to fry the onions with which would turn this dish into 0 ProPoints! [Option 2] Omit frying the onions separately and boil them with the jerusalem artichokes instead.

Vegetarian: Use vegetable stock/broth instead of chicken stock/broth.

Vegan: Leave out the butter and use olive oil or another type of your choice.

Baby Food: Infants should avoid salt for so omit the stock/broth and salt from the recipe. Use water to boil the vegetables instead and puree until smooth afterwards.

Kids: Why not tempt them by sprinkling grated Parmesan cheese on top?

The recipe is already gluten free and if you use oil instead of butter it will be lactose/dairy free as well. It’s paleo friendly too.

Don’t Have Enough Jerusalem Artichokes?

Using other root vegetables can lead to interesting flavour combinations. Why not make up the deficit with celeriac, sweet potato, carrots, potato or parsnip? Other vegetables worth considering are cauliflower, pumpkin, fennel, various type of mushrooms such as porcini or wild ones, butternut squash and spinach. Just try one vegetable at a time though! To make the soup more filling lentils can be added or for an even nuttier taste why not add a few chestnuts to the mix?

Herbs & Spices You Can Add To Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

For an added flair you can add a dash of brandy to the frying onions before adding the jerusalem artichokes to the pot.

Garlic, roasted even better!

Ginger, fresh or dried

Sage

What To Add When Your Jerusalem Artichoke Soup Is Ready

Whether you are a vegetarian or not, there are numerous ways to give the dish an extra bit of oomph.

Hazelnuts, chopped

Parsley, chopped

Lemon juice

Parmesan cheese

Blue cheese, crumbled

Bacon, ham or pancetta

Scallops

Chicken, cooked

Foie gras

Truffle

Flavoured oils, e.g. hazelnut or truffle

Can you freeze Jerusalem Artichoke Soup?

Yes. Make some extra so that you can enjoy it later!

Chop your onion and peel the garlic clove. Scrub the jerusalem artichokes really well and slice them. There are other methods to making the soup. You can choose to peel them and throw the skins away and then boil the vegetables as the recipe suggests. Or you can take the peels, boil them in the stock until soft, then sieve the liquid and cook the remaining vegetables in the jerusalem artichoke stock. Every method is right, choose which one is best for you.

Gently fry the onion and garlic in butter until softened.

Add the jerusalem artichokes to the pot.

Add stock to the vegetables and simmer gently for a while unti the vegetables are tender.

Blend the soup until smooth.

If you chose to leave the peel on, you now have the option to sieve the soup to remove all of the soup’s possible graininess. I prefer not to. If you scrubbed well there’s no need to worry.

Add a dash of cream to give the soup a touch of luxury. This is optional.

Voila! In a few easy steps you’ve just cooked yourself a fabulous meal!

Jerusalem Artichoke soup is sweet and nutty, perfect for the winter months.

Ingredients

15ml (1 tbsp) olive oil

30g (1 oz) butter

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

900g (2 lbs) Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and sliced

900ml (1½ pints) vegetable or chicken stock

60ml (2 fl oz) double cream [optional]

30g (1 oz) chives, washed and roughly chopped

Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan; add the onion and garlic and gently sauté.

When the onion has softened after about 5 minutes, add the Jerusalem artichokes and stock and stir well.

Bring the contents to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently for 20 minutes or until the butternut is soft.

Blend the soup with a hand-held blender or in a food processor.

Add the cream, season to taste and serve in four bowls and sprinkle with the herbs.

Notes

If you’re on Weight Watchers, simply omit the butter and oil and use low-fat cooking spray instead, which will turn the soup into 0 ProPoints!
If you’re vegan, omit the butter and add more oil to the recipe instead.
If you’re on a low-fat diet, leave out the oil and butter and use low-fat cooking spray.

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I am worried my son will be one of these teenagers who farts loudly and frequently thinking it’s hilarious. He’s already started doing it now!!

I don’t see Jerusalem artichokes on sale that often and it’s a long time since I tried them (which I believe was just once anyway). So I can’t comment what effect they have on me. I do have the ‘smelly wee’ gene after eating asparagus though if that’s any indication.

When I saw the name of the post I immediately thought “Eating this would be a fart fest!” Glad to read that I’m not the only one. Funny, funny story! It’s very healthy to laugh at ourselves. Your soup does look absolutely delicious! I love Jerusalem artichokes, but haven’t made them in ages due to the aforementioned reason. I think it’s time to change that. This soup would be worth it!

This is so coincidental! We just had a sunchoke soup as our soup of the day at work (we garnished it with a country ham and gruyere fritter = awesome!) and it was my first experience with it! Now I’m just seeing it all over the place!

I don’t get Jerusalem artichokes in my country but we have a root vegetable that is very similar even with the unfortunate side effects. Never thought to make a soup with them. I look forward to trying them now this way.

Loved this recipe on fartichokes, it reminded me about the time my friend and me went to the local market one morning, we left our husband building a roof, once at the market there was stalls & stalls selling Artichokes, neither of us had cooked these before and as it was a cold day thought soup for lunch with fresh french baguettes (we live in France) well we made the soup all sat down to eat it over lunch,my friends husband never eats veg! And I mean never !! So we told him it was chicken soup. They both said how nice it was, went back on the roof, we sat outside having a cuppa and knitting, as the afternoon went on they were laughing and laughing, mind you we were by then, when one came rushing down the ladder ran to the loo and was in there a while, came out looking very embarrassed and back on the roof,10 mind later my hubby came rushing down just the same. Along came our french neighbor who asked why was there so much laughter coming over the wall so we explained, she said week that’s why we french call them *fartichokes*we did told the men that night, my friends husband said that’s why I don’t eat veg !

THANK YOU!!! A hundred times over – I thought it was just me – here’s a funny store the first time i ate them we had black beans as a side dish – need I say more. My tummy blew up like a ballon and for two full days I had lost control of my shut off valve . I didn’t leave the house because I was so afraid of being the loud horn in the room. And the thing is I absolutely love the flavor of those babies. You know once you plant them in your garden they multiply like weeds. Presently i have 5 lbs in ref ridge and that was only from a few plants. I still have 50 plants to harvest !! Thank goodness my dogs love them and they get no side effects

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